On November 6th, the City of San Leandro joined with the Zero Net Energy Center to celebrate the outcomes of two high impact projects: expansion of the City’s fiber optic infrastructure and the Zero Net Energy Center’s successful first year of operation. Both of these highly innovative projects were created through the power of public/private partnerships and strong support from officials at all levels of governance, from Washington DC to Sacramento to the City of San Leandro.

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) notified the City of San Leandro of its history-making approval of a $2.12 million matching grant to expand the City’s fiber optic conduit infrastructure an additional 7.5 miles. The proposal to fund the construction of fiber optic infrastructure, developed by a City team led by Jeff Kay (now the City’s Business Development Manager), was the first of its kind in the U.S. Construction of this phase is scheduled for completion in December 2014.

In May 2013, Governor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblyman Rob Bonta joined several hundred people to dedicate the grand opening of the Zero Net Energy Center at 14600 Catalina Street, San Leandro. The 46,000 sf structure is an educational facility for 2,000 electrical workers that participate in a program run by IBEW Local 595 and the Northern California Chapter of NECA. Of equal importance, the ZNE Center is the very first commercial building retrofit designed to meet the U.S. Department of Energy’s requirements for a “zero net energy” building. One year later, the data is in — ZNEC generates more electricity than it uses!

The result? A dual celebration of Zero Net Energy Center’s one-year milestone, partnered with driving the virtual “Golden Spike” to complete the City’s fiber optic infrastructure expansion. This special evening event brought together representatives of many government and business organizations, including Mayor Stephen Cassidy, City Manager Chris Zapata, Dr. Patrick Kennedy (founder of OSIsoft, San Leandro Dark Fiber and Lit San Leandro), Malinda Matson of the EDA, former San Leandro Mayor Sheila Young, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, Senator Ellen Corbett and many others from the San Leandro community.

A special thanks to Mel Speed of The Music Company, for his outstanding curation of this event — from the Golden Spike plaques to the ambience, Mel just knows how to stage a terrific event. The pictures below are courtesy of Mel — thanks! For more pictures of the event, please click here.